the post-fight Victory horns are sounding and they are sounding
for one sugar Sean O’Malley the new UFC bantamweight champion of the world it’s
official we can say it welcome to the sugar show everybody and welcome to the UFC 292 post fight show
we are live here on the MMA fighting YouTube channel thank you for joining us it is right now 3 13 a.m on the East
Coast but the Vibes are high as they have been all week new champion in the bantamweight division Zhang Wei Lee with
a record-breaking dominant decision win in the co-main event to retain the straw way title Ian Machado Gary dominant win
we’ll talk about that and more I am Mike Heck and joining me to talk all about it
is a man you saw on the watch party a man who is with us watching Sean O’Malley knock out Al Jermaine Sterling
live he is the one and only Mr hot take Mr no gray area Jed michoud Jed how are you
sir I mean I’m a changed man Mike because I now am living in the sugar era it’s so
sweet it’s so sweet Mike oh yes what a great end to an event that was
let’s be honest I enjoyed it it was not a bad of it but it was it was lagging a little and then Sean O’Malley just
rewrites the rules to the game baby and now we got something to talk about for real we certainly do and again like I said
you were live with me as this is all going down with GC Sean O’Malley sniped
him just like he said he was going to do all week I’m gonna snipe him I’m gonna find his shin at some point he makes a mistake I’m gonna find his chin and he
did it Sean O’Malley is the bantamweight champion of the world Judd Michelle this just happened a couple of hours ago
has it really sunk in here that Sean O’Malley did what a lot of people thought he wouldn’t do outside of a a
value betting perspective unless you were walking around Boston because everybody thought Sean O’Malley’s going to win in Boston
yeah I mean I think everyone thought that this could happen I don’t think many people predicted it certainly I
think the smart money and the smart thought was that aljo has a lot of advantages like
all of the on paper and I said it uh various pre-show stuff and even on the watch party all the on paper stuff was
in algebra’s favor but there were Vibes there was this idea um that you know maybe O’Malley has a
touch of the McGregor and him this abilities sort of make unlikely outcomes occur in in the best you know possible
Universe for him and it happened eerily close to the McGregor Aldo finish
frankly um him doing that over a guy colloquially known as aljo is certainly something and you know history
may not repeat itself but it appears to have rhymed in this instance and so not like shocking that this happened I’m not
like I can’t believe what occurred but uh it was it was very cool to see happen
and sort of where we’re gonna go from here the the bantamweight division is never going to be the same uh and
it might not be for better frankly but I am very interested to see kind of how this how this rope plays out moving
forward yeah I think at this point at least during this Reign the bantamweight
division will very rarely be like a co-main event division like it has been
for so long but Sean O’Malley is the champion and things are going to change very quickly he obviously called out
Cheeto Vera something he’s been calling for the whole time and then he called out jervante Davis you do that was coming it happened like within three
minutes of this I did not I did not know that was coming out and that’s all me hand up I was dumb I should have known
that was coming but the speed with which it pivoted to I guess I’ll fight Cheeto
because like people kind of want to see that one but I don’t wanna I don’t want to give the business to the rest of
these dudes because they’re not big business let’s fight Javonte it was lightning fast
yeah it just seems it seems like this we were heading in this direction Marlon Barry just need to do his job he did it
against Pedro Munoz this is where we’re going like Shawn O’Malley wants December it seems like Cheeto Vera and his team
are already planning on December I saw a post from his manager saying thank you
for an epic week in Boston we’ll see you in December this is the fight right like aljame wants a rematch I don’t think
there’s any chance he gets it even though he deserves it but he’s but we don’t use the word deserves because it
doesn’t really work in the UFC and in the sport in general but we are getting Sean O’Malley Marlon Vera too for the
bantamweight title and this is the biggest fight you can make this is the biggest fight in the history of the division
oh easily I think there was a very good argument uh that like a year ago that
rematch was the biggest fight in the division from a numbers standpoint um they’re the two biggest stars in the
division uh after tonight O’Malley is the number two star in MMA like I feel
really confident and comfortable calling Sean O’Malley the number two biggest star in MMA and arguably number one
depending on your views on if Conor still intends to ever fight again so uh
yeah it’s unquestionably the biggest fight in the history of this division it’s the biggest fight that can be made in the sport right now probably
um maybe you could do something with Conor um and somebody else but I don’t I think that this fight will do
better numbers than Conor versus Chandler will and I think Connor versus channel will do just fine because it’s
still Conor but you got to have some a real foil and that’s I think that’s what Cheeto is bringing here so yeah I’d be
pretty surprised at this point if that’s not uh 296 December in in Las Vegas the
the headliner and it’s never gonna like you said Shawn O’Malley is never going to not fight in the main event of a
pay-per-view from this point forward that that is just not his lot in life at this moment in time because the UFC is
never going to put him on a card with Conor who’s the only dude who could take that spot from him at the moment
and from a from a box office perspective from a business perspective and let’s be honest from an Intrigue perspective
because Sean O’Malley has captivated and captured a lot of the Casual viewing audience
it is obviously going to be a very interesting however long apparently according to Sean O’Malley this is going
to be a very interesting 12 years because he’s going to be doing this until 20 35 apparently he’s gonna have a
12-year run and if he’s able to do that at this point I’m just going to believe everything he says and as interesting as
this division is going to be moving forward with Sean O’Malley at the helm I think the more interesting short-term
question coming out of this fight is not where Sean O’Malley goes it’s where Al Jermaine Sterling goes because he was
very forthright he was very honest with his assessment of the fight and where his future is because if Sean O’Malley’s
knocking him out in the second round like that he doesn’t like his chances very much about going up to 145 in
fighting Alexander volkanovsky and that idea is probably completely off the table I don’t know if that fight ever
happens unless bulkanovsky just shows for it and gets it it’s probably done so where does Al Jermaine Sterling Go From
Here does he even attempt to go up to 45 and just try to earn a spot like do you
go up there and you try to fight the Ilia taporias we know tapori is about to get a title shot but the tapori
is the ofloyevs the those types of Fighters like is this his future right now just go up there and try to pick
apart one of these top five top seven guys in hopes that you can Intrigue
volkanovsky into fighting you or is he staying at 135 in hopes of trying to get a rematch that if you watch the post
fight press conference Sean O’Malley does not seem interested in that at all where does he go from here because that
might be the more interesting question in the short term Toronto Valley is never fighting this dude again he’s going up to 145. he
he’ll take some time on him and Hall that’s why I didn’t really like his post fight speech in the Octagon um it was very honest and so full credit to him
for that but it’s one of those things that I think he’s gonna wish he could take back just for saying it out loud of
uh you know I don’t like my chances well sure you’re not gonna fight vulcanovsky
now like you’re not you don’t get to lose go up and fight for the belt that’s not how that works so Volk isn’t really
even in consideration at this at the moment you’re the question for him is fundamentally do I stick around here in
a weight class where my best friend and training partner I’ve already essentially told him hey I’m going to
get out of the way so you can run this um and he’s probably even ahead of me in
title Shot line right now just because Sean O’Malley I think is more likely to
say yes to more opt into aljo a second time uh but is it it’s just not gonna
work for him he’s going to look at it and be like no I’d have to fight a bunch of dudes I’ve already fought I don’t really want to do again and that’s to
entice O’Malley to get a rematch so he’s not going to say yes to so maybe he could hang around in case Cheeto wins
and he could slide in there for you know to beat Cheeto or whatever but I think the much simpler thing is just go up
because I I think he’ll do quite fine at 145. he might not be volcanovsky hey man
I got a secret nobody else at 145 has been beaten that dude for like four years so
you’re not alone that like you can go fight but you can get up you move up he
goes up and let’s say he fights Josh I don’t know what Josh amit’s career plans are but you know he gets a fight like
that and performs really well then there’s a very easy narrative he was cutting too much weight it was too hard
for 135 he is so much better suited to this weight class he’s still strong and big but he’s got more speed here it’s
going to be great so I think he’s just moving up to 145. it’s the most logical move forward for him so I think that
that’s what we’re gonna get next for him last thing before we move on to what John Wayne Lee did and obviously much
more talk about this for a long time because this is one of those moments that’s just gonna stick with us it’s
going to be in highlight packages Baba O’Riley that’s that knockout punch gonna be there forever we talked about
this bantamoic division a lot heading into this fight and where it all goes and we know Mario there is probably
getting the next shot but we have marab we have Corey sandhagen we have even though you don’t like to admit it
because we don’t really know what he’s doing right now we have Henry sahuto and then we have this flux of this influx of
like other contenders On The Rise right now who is The Biggest Loser in this fight
and I’m not talking about Al Jermaine Sterling I’m talking about of the guys who are vying for that title opportunity
how much did marob lose tonight because there is a story there and it’s a fascinating one but with all the names
that Shawn O’Malley was presented or all the names that came out of his mouth but Rob de Wallace Willie was not one of
them I I alluded to this earlier I think
bantamweight is about to be awful um and that’s gonna really break the hearts of a lot of the hipsters who are
under the um false narrative that this is the best division of the sport it’s a very very good division
um the only reason that narrative started to thrive is because Conor broke lightweight like Conor just stealing the
lightweight belt and then being a lunatic and just broke lightweight for a very long time and it’s still suffering
some of those effects frankly think there’s a pretty good shot here that um that our new Champion is going to
break bantamweight he’s going to fight Cheeto in a few beats Cheeto he pretty much explicitly said that he doesn’t
give a [ __ ] about fighting anybody else in this way class um hey why are you so interested in travonta Davis uh because he’s a star
and there’s nobody uh there’s nobody in the bantamweight division that’s a star there’s there’s Cheeto and that’s it
um so I I maybe the UFC decides to be a little heavy-handed with him and make
him defend the belt but if he’s his biggest star coming off of this then I think he is probably going to be uh I’m
not sure that they force his hand and so then it’s I would say morab is sort of the front
runner like right now but I think that everybody in this weight class other than Cheeto Vera is moved one more fight
away from fighting for the title wherever they were previously in line you probably just add one more fight to
it because I think we’re we’re in in for a bit of a stalemate at the top here and
maybe some interim titles coming down the line because that might be a way to entice him if you can put an interim
belt on somebody else yeah the the Intercontinental division as I’ve always called it with
bantamweight is now going to become a prize fighting division which Sean O’Malley’s the champion Corey sandhagen
may actually have come out of this okay because maybe Corey sandhagen when he comes back gets to fight like marab for
an interim title instead of having to fight Umar for nothing so uh I got the
only person I can see that like we’re gonna do Cheeto in December I suspect
we’re gonna get some layoff after that and maybe the UFC is going to start hounding around to be like hey Umar how
long until you’re back healthy let’s try and fire you up because you could maybe sell a purity on rematch like I could
see O’Malley accepting pirian if he can get a couple of Dubs in maybe maybe Henry sahuto but you know that I don’t
treat him as a real person so is that but I I think I think he’s going to
defend against Cheeto and I think we are not gonna see him for maybe a full year like he might defending his Cheeto in
December and then it’s like I’ll wait till July or even the next go-around at Madison Square Garden something like
that yeah you’re probably right so it’s going to be interesting to see where this division goes where Al Jermaine Sterling
goes a lot to kind of digest coming out of this Main Event co-main Event
she didn’t get the finish and I think it busted a lot of parlays and a lot of betting slips for ripped up and thrown
on the floor but all in all this was about as one side as you could get there
was a moment where Amanda lemosh slapped on this weird submission sort of ninja
choke s kind of a thing and it looked like Zhang might be in a little bit of trouble at least if you listen to the commentators they’re like oh she’s
turning blue and other than that Amanda lamosh had and maybe like one right hand
early she had nothing for John Whaley this was a historic one-sided Championship
Beatdown by jean-lei Lee and even though she didn’t get the finish and a lot of people had betting tickets that she
would get the Finish boy is it fun to watch her compete because it’s gonna be tough to take that
title off of her yeah uh I thought that this fight would look like this only she’d get the
stoppage coming in I know that Amanda limos was like a Darling Dog this week a
lot of people were like yeah she’s she can do some real violent stuff and Wiley Zhang’s not impervious to getting hit I
was like sure can’t be super shocked if it happens but uh I watched Wiley Zhang
just like throw Jessica and Josh out the cage and I basically watched Jessica and drive through the exact same thing dilemmo show I think I know how this is
gonna work and look like that like uh I mean best performance of Wiley’s career
I I would say all things considered she is really like for when she entered the
UFC on that big big long winning streak like 19 fights or whatever it was she was largely just like an athlete who did
a bunch of like was just the best athlete in the division and that was dope and it won her a belt frankly by
just being the best athlete and then she lost had a couple of setbacks and she’s
refined her game a lot like she she’s really smart in her approach to this fight she minimized any opportunity
limos had to generate consistent offense got to her spots and just ragged all the
motion like if you look at the stats on this fight it is unbelievable it’s like 288 to six or something
296 to 29. yeah it’s that’s those are those cartoon numbers like I could go
load up EA UFC 4 right now and I could not put those numbers on like the easy
mode setting and she did it in an actual world championship fight against totally viable Contender so
it was an incredible performance from her and shouts to Joe Rogan and Daniel
Cormier because tonight was a banner night for the oh that that submission’s close and me being like oh good I know
that she is very safe as long as they’re saying it’s close the safest place you
can be like Fort Knox uh out of probably the White House is like a fairly secure
building and locked into a submission that Joe Rogan is squealing about saying that it is close you could not be more
safe than being in those positions yes what a performance and yeah 296 to
28 is which is 2900 I guess and the significant strikes 163 to 24.
for Zhang Wei Lee I mean just most significant strikes landed the biggest strike differential in women’s UFC
history They’re laughing I was live vlogging this like for the site right and I gave I think I did the first two
rounds or ten nines um for for Whaley um and then they showed that stat after
round two where the stat like the Striking totals live we’re like so Amanda lambosch has landed six strikes
and in my live blog I wrote here’s the stat update I perhaps should have scored some of
these previous rounds 10 8. it was just unbelievable like how
nothing was happening from limbo it didn’t even feel like early on it didn’t even feel like she was that ineffective
but she had nothing to offer nothing so that brings up the big question here
is right there and if they go to China That’s obviously a massive fight and in fact
well even if they don’t like they could go to Boston and this is a very big fight they’d go to New York and this is a very big fight then go anywhere and
this is a big fight but they have to go to China with this one so Tatiana’s war is kind of lost out here
did she not I mean it’s she’s going to get her shot she’s going to get another win I was I suggested because I felt
like I knew where this fight was gonna go they should have just done Mackenzie Dern versus Tatiana Suarez as a Fight
Night Main Event I think that would have been a really good call but apparently which flew under everybody’s radar Mackenzie Dern is fighting Jessica and
Raj at UFC 295 they showed her on the screen and there was a graphic which no one announced and nobody knew about so
we’re it’s it’s gonna be it’s gonna be John Wiley versus John John that is what’s gonna happen is Tatiana Suarez
just gonna sit around and wait for the winner of that fight or is she gonna have another fight what did tonight do
to Tatiana Suarez’s Championship aspirations and how far back is she gonna have to wait now
probably gonna have to wait a quick shout out to Jessica androgs who’s trying to speed run the end of career
losing streak it’s gonna be your fifth fight this year she lost 30 in a row and she’s gonna turn around and fight just take it take some time off like you
don’t have to keep doing this but uh tattoo Suarez is it makes way more sense for her to fight
Mackenzie darn oh other than that instead she’s probably just gonna sit on the sideline as she was originally
booked to fight for energy Robo maybe they I don’t know how long ago was out um because I think it was a knee injury
but uh maybe they just rebooked that but I would assume that Tatiana Suarez will
get to get the honor potentially of weighing in as a backup Fighter for the impending uh Whaley versus yawn fight
but she ain’t jumping the line like if limo should won we had talked about it there was very much a world where Tatiana just gets to okay it’s time to
do this this is clearly where this division is going let’s just get there but did you hear the the Chinese reporter
and I don’t know if you listen to The Post presser Mike uh a a reporter who I
believe was Chinese um noted to Dana White that on Chinese
social media uh The Knockout or the the fight from Wiley had generated 1.9
billion views so uh I’m just gonna go ahead and say that I
would cut off a pinky if the UFC doesn’t book Wiley versus Jean and do that in
China because why wouldn’t they Give Me A Reason any reason at all
that’s if that’s if that fact is true about 1.9 billion with a B
the two of them in China is the the biggest no-brainer in the history of combat I don’t know what else to tell
you man I feel like we could maybe get this in before the end of the year there is Rumblings about perhaps a card in China
by the end of the year maybe you know like some kind of hinted about it in the press or two he didn’t say it because he
leaned heavily on that we don’t book fights or someone was like Hey their rumors you’re thinking about China before the end of the year and he was
like wink or whatever so it seems certainly after tonight uh it may have
been a situation where they were just gonna like let’s wait and see about what happens here but I would say after tonight uh that’s going to get a full
court press honestly if we’re talking about Futures and fights the genre the eventual genre
Tatiana Suarez fight is going to be incredibly fascinating I am very much
looking forward to that matchup uh when it does happen Tatiana is going to run her but it’s gonna be dope
it’s gonna be interesting to see that’s a really really good fight and I’m highly intrigued by it Ian Machado Gary
Jen michoud goes out there and just lays waste to Neil magni who is just incredibly tough I thought there are
multiple points in this fight where Ian was just going to kick him in the leg and the leg was going to give out and the referee is just going to save him
from himself but magni makes it to the cards Ian Machado Gary on one of the
judges cards three ten Eights incredible performance this is one-sided
as it could get this is about as good as it could be for Ian Machado Gary outside of getting a quick finish but
he calls out Wonder Boy Thompson apparently Dana White said they already reached out to Stephen about doing that
fight and he turned it down I don’t know if he’s gonna be able to turn this one down dude honestly I feel
like cooler heads are going to Prevail and I think Steven’s just gonna have to take this fight if he wants to
get to this title run because I think the fights that he wants the UFC just isn’t going to give him right now so
biggest takeaway from Ian Machado Gary’s performance and his upside at 170
because there are some fun guys moving up the ladder but I feel like Ian Machado Gary is is ahead of all of them
right now that’s gonna be weird I do want to talk about Wonder Boy first because as good
as this performance was from IMG I think this is going to be the bra a broad
narrative perhaps supersede it just because Dana throw under the bus isn’t the right term
um I I don’t know like held under the bus while it went over and reversed over like Dana just tried to bury Wonder Boy
but be like yeah he passed up the fight I don’t know if that’s true or not um because I just don’t take things Dana
says at face value um if it is I have no idea what wonderboy’s doing like yeah I think
you’re gonna lose this fight but like who are you trying to fight if it’s like if if your goal is to win is to fight a
tight for a title you’ve already lost all the wrestlers in front of you like who and you have
explicitly said you don’t want to fight him who the hell do you want to fight if it’s not like somebody like this so I
don’t know he wants the Osman fight okay um well I don’t think maybe I don’t know
just say yes dude it’s fine uh I don’t think there’s some fight’s gonna go well for you and I’m not even sure you’re
gonna get it so I don’t know uh Ian Machado Gary was dope tonight
um perfect performance uh maybe not perfect uh 96. he could have finished it
um on uh Casey and I talked about this in the presser briefly like I know many people won’t hold that
against him and I don’t really hold it against him but there is a point for me where when you are fighting it’s
somebody who is no longer capable of Defending themselves reasonably which is where Magnus was in that third round
pretty much he was just in full-on survival mode um not putting a coffin nail in
it’s like a missed opportunity but it’s not a bad performance his performance was obviously Sensational and every
other part of it too was what is great like he carried himself like a star this
whole week uh I don’t know that he has won yet but my takeaways from this event
are I mean Machado Gary fan now think that dude’s dope um both the way he fights and the things
he says I find enjoyable and some of it’s insane like I’m not here to say that all of it’s reasonable and I agree
with all of his takes um his statement that he was carrying the card pre-fight is insane several of
his statements afterwards are insane um but he’s carrying himself with with a
great confidence that is appealing to me the way he handles his business is great and I thought his post fight was awesome
you know like he gave Neo magni his props but didn’t back down at all from the [ __ ] he talked about Neil magni had
doubled down on the stuff he said and that’s a font like you you don’t have to be like oh we’re bonded in battle now so
like we’re all gravy you know it’s like no F that dude he still sucks you don’t say that [ __ ]
um but respect to him for you know knuckling up and fighting me like you gotta at least give a man respect for
doing that but he still sucks ass uh I love democrato Gary’s performance this whole week uh I’m I’ll tell you what I’m
super hot on a man like I know that JDM is is the the darling Delight of the welterweight division
I Ian Machado Gary is this this weight classes if there’s a dude who’s going to take the belt from shavkot when he does
get it Ian Machado Gary’s gonna be that dude yeah incredible performance the man
backed up everything he said it’s gonna be interesting if he gets the Wonder Boy fight do they just go back to Jeff Neal I don’t know if the ship has
sailed on that I would still like to see that fight if it can happen I think that’s a really good like next test
because welterweight has a lot of litmus tests and I feel like Neil magni is sort
of the dude that welcomes you into the top 10 to 12 range Neil is like you’re
you’re a top seven guy give me Sean Brady
at the post pressure IMG was like I am the best Jiu-Jitsu player in the world
y’all don’t know it because you’ve never seen like I’m that’s that’s only a loose exaggeration he was like if I fight in
December I might F around and then try and try and win a nogi World Championship uh because like I’m telling
you guys I’m that good at grappling you just don’t know because I never showed it to you I I would like to see it if this is true
then I’m I have him very highly ranked in our latest rankings which I did tonight uh if he is also the greatest
Grappler to exist on Earth uh I’m underrating him by significant margin I’d like to know it and Sean Brady gonna
tackle that dude’s ass so let’s just do that I wanna the top of this division ain’t nothing but dudes we’re gonna put
you on the mat and check and real check you right there let’s do it I don’t know what Sean Brady’s doing seems like it’d
be a great time for these two guys to fight if I’m Sean Brady I am doing nothing but calling this guy out yeah that’s all I’m
doing just focus all your attention on again trying to get that fight I don’t think that’s gonna happen but uh if you’re
Sean Brady and you can get to Ian Machado Gary and force Ian to talk about you do it dude Shopko I was about to
fight Kelvin Gaslamp for God knows what reason like just fight em Shadow Gary now oh that’s that’s a better win for
you in the division and in MMA let’s do that like if I’m any dude who knows I
have to fight backwards next fight uh and I’m at the top of this weight class
and that’s not I’m not saying that because that’s an easy win I’m just saying it because like that’s that’s gonna give you the most bang for your
buck if you can do it and as as Casey and you have as you said a lot about
Hamza and I think it was Hamza fight the dude now because he’s 26 man he ain’t
getting worse over the next five years fight him now yeah that would be super interesting if
Ian started calling him out so good win for him good win for Mario Batista he gets it done we talked about Marlon Vera
where he goes he earned himself a title shot with his victory what are you laughing at
Mario batine still won a fight on the main card and Cheeto Fair let’s talk
about the thing that matters I just love the the that fight hitting on this card is so freaking weird
dude got out there he still took the fight after losing Cody garbrandt anyone and he got in there and won the fight
but is it one word it wasn’t yeah if you look back on this event you’re
gonna remember the Chris Robin Brad Tavares fight you’re not gonna remember this fight that happened
yes and you segued perfectly because before we go get to the peeps I do want
to talk about what happened in that fight because we started the watch party right before round two was gonna start
in the Chris Weidman Brad to virus fight so we got to watch it and Brad just kept nailing them with light kicks there was
a point in the second round where I thought he broke his leg again I was like oh no he went down he started
limping on it and it just he may have torn his MCL did you I don’t know if you
caught that at the presser I don’t know what you call from the presser um so uh aljo said and you know not a
doctor and it’s not there but alja was asked about it and uh I believe he loose
said that like there’s concern that he injured it and then Dana I think specifically said that uh tall accused
asked about the wagon fight and he was like I would like well I’ve been to retire um like they think he tore his MCL in
the fight like so he’s so he’s out for a while anyway because he now has on the
other leg not on the previously certain like surgery one but leave the leg that
was getting kicked amongst lead leg theoretically he has suffered actually like legitimate knee damage so
um Casey Casey you laughed at me in the pre-fight Q a when I was like I’m concerned about this man’s leg and you
were like it’s like it’s fine I was half right it was the wrong leg I should have been concerned about the other leg
I said on the preview show that honestly like like and I know Chris Weidman is a very is very hungry and he’s very
competitive and he wanted this fight to be the beginning of a title run and I think a lot of people roll their eyes
with that but Chris was very serious about that and the argument I made on the previous show that the best case
scenario the best thing that could happen for for Weidman for Tavares for
everybody else who loves Chris Wyman loves what he was able to do in his career was that Weidman would would lose
a somewhat competitive decision and then just be done because you came back dude
you came back after all of that right you go in there
your leg is compromised in the fight you still fight back you still land some shots you got Tavares kind of reeling at
a point or two in that fight with some of the shots that you landed you lose a competitive decision what a
perfect time to walk away like No One’s Gonna Be down on you for that I just think the title run hopes are over
you you did something a lot of people believed you may never do again there were talks you might just lose your leg
altogether because of this injury but you made it back you competed like a freaking Champion you didn’t win but you
competed and I felt like this was the best case scenario for everybody involved and it played out that way so I
guess I’ll ask you this and it’s kind of a bummer to say but I think it’s a conversation needs to be had especially after what Dana said was this the last
Chris Weidman fight it was a really good chance it was the last Crystal I’ve been fighting the UFC
um I think we talk about this all the time if you just blanketly assume that no fighter is going to retire you’re
going to be right far more often than you’re going to be wrong um if he did in fact tear his MCL or or
you know any any other ligament going on in there and is looking at six months another year on the sidelines for
surgery Rehabilitation and now he is two legs down or two legs with 50 combined
surgeries or whatever it is something some insane number between them I think there’s a very good chance that he just
kind of goes home looks and says no um I came back from the big one like you were saying and that that’s enough uh
I’d be a bit surprised though I do think he’s gonna want an exit um he’s just gonna want that real
the the moment if if not to come back so uh if I’m putting money down I think we
will see Chris Weidman fight at least one more time I am personally I think it’s time Mike I know that he’s
not currently in the organization but we can mend these fences let’s just rock it back in a year and a
half Luke rockhold let’s just do it yes that was supposed to be the Rivalry that was going to Define middleweight for
like the Next Generation and then they fought the one time it was awesome and then they never fought again and now
both dudes got washed almost overnight and now here we are when Chris is ready to come back let’s
just sign sign Luke for one more Lucas specifically said that he like doesn’t want to end his Combat Sports career off
that bare-knuckle fight with Mike Perry so come back home let’s run that back uh
it’ll be something and it’s a good retirement fight for both dudes running back is a retirement fight it’s ideal
I love that idea I think that’s the only fight that would make sense for Chris at this point Gregory Rodriguez kind of some
controversy with the finish of Dennis hallulin we’ll see how that plays out
now controversy it’s cool okay the rule of cool applies that was dope so I don’t
care that it was arguably legal also if you don’t want to get punched in the back of the head uh don’t present the
back of your head to get punched that’s long my official stat uh standpoint on this I think it’s a dumb rule um so
don’t don’t do it welcome back to the UFC Kurt hollabaugh gets his first official UFC win triangle
choke against Austin Hubbard Kurt Hollow will still continue on called out Patty pimblet he became the 71st lightweight
currently on the active roster to call out Patty pemblitt so I mean go for the Gusto Brad Katona and Cody Gibson put on
a friggin show what a freaking fight that was uh katoni getting a contract
is that what Dana said yeah well he didn’t say those words but someone asked him is it safe to assume that like uh
with you know Stefan Bonner Cody Gibson and he was like yeah all right good much deserved uh Andre
petrovski Gerald mirzaard it was the most fun middleweighty middleweight fight I probably ever seen
uh but Petrosky wins The splitty Natty Ice is just something special she beat
the hell out of Andrea Lee that fight was not really all that competitive and then Karina Silva submits Marina morose
gets a little Revenge from their fight from several years back but Maddie Iceman
before easy questions I gotta talk about her yeah gotta talk about her she’s so good I ranked her she is now going to be
in my flyweight rankings I think I have her like number 12 after that performance against Andrew Lee I am
super excited to see where she goes Jen I love this uh I I went for it I ranked
them both both of the sofas are in my flyweight rankings baby let’s go nice um Natty Ice is higher than Korean a
Silva but the bottom of the rankings there’s a lot of opportunity for someone to slide it there and why not um Karina
Silva look Natty Ice beat the hell out of uh KGB Lee and that was dope but uh
Korea Silva frankly impressed me more because we sort of anticipated this what Natty Ice was going to do in our
conversation you and I had the conversation beforehand that green Silva is the one that she already lost marose
morose is sneaky like a hitter like she she’s sneaky a very competitive very
tough out in this division and is there any civil warped her and tapped her um
right with the buzzer beater tap too I love those so uh I was even more impressed by Queen Silva because she
exceeded expectations whereas Natty Ice is just like all right it’s time for her to start making real moves here and and
see what we’ve got on our hands with her but yeah um look the prelims are fun man really
fun car really good really really good all right no issues
and that’s it was awesome yeah all right let’s bring in E Casey
Lyden and we’ll take a few questions before we get out of here it is pretty late so we’re not gonna take a whole bunch of questions but we’ll take a few
Mike I didn’t ask you this when I was on the thing my our first question is going to be for me to you Mike uh how do we
feel about Cheeto not getting a mic on him uh after beating Pedro Munoz
it’s a missed opportunity like your promotional packages like you got enough there like I get it you just go back to
that first fight and have it played out and some of the things that were said and whatever but you you you miss an
opportunity here you certainly missed an opportunity not giving Cheeto the Michael cheetah was
yeah Cheeto was probably the fourth most popular fighter
on the entire card uh I think jean-lailey was probably number two uh
yeah dude Chris and Chris Weidman was very popular because of the story and the comeback and then uh Vera is like
right there like super over with us and so I kind of expected him to get a microphone in his hand and
that it is so incredible watching this guy because he never looks like he’s
even in a fight when it’s over this one like he had some sweat in his like his
beautifully done hair had like some sweaty bangs like three or four of them and that’s like the most you’ve seen
Cheeto Vera like perspire in a fight in like five years it’s insane
yeah and I thought it was fun as hell Pedro Munoz always comes
I did not think Pedro won but I thought that there’s a very there’s a reasonable argument that he won do you want to give
him the first two rounds I don’t have any issues with that yeah pretty much yeah well Cheeto won by Pride rules if it will go with that I gave Cheeto the
first I gave Peter the second yeah um I I also made decisions 75 of media uh cheetah winning and
actually surprisingly 60 of fans I’m sorry Pedro winning and 60 of fans also have
Pedro winning which is surprising but wow it was interesting Pedro kicked the legs a whole bunch and
leg kicks don’t win fights yep of course not however I do have it on on good
authority that Cheeto uh did some post-fight interview standing because
his legs were all jacked up so yeah maybe maybe like kicks do matter
and you should start factoring those into what happened in your scorecards uh
is Patty Pima the only fighter who is it called a Patty template Ah that’s a
great question fantastic work stuff proud of you stuff that’s a great question uh well
done all right and this opportunity for Patty too Patty could have could have could do it Anderson called himself out
for years yeah by my clone um
what do we actually think about the stoppage for the main event a plus I don’t know notes I don’t think
there was really anything bad about it me either I think it was I think it was a perfect stoppage I will go on Beyond I
think it was fantastic I believe Mark Goddard is the second best referee in MMA I think Jason Herzog is the best and
has been for some time but Mark Goddard is rarely bad and usually very good and
I thought he nailed it um you can always leave a stoppage one or two punches longer and I won’t be
like super upset um and I know that a lot of Fighters would prefer that you saw some
outpouring of that but by the way you’re supposed to stop fights nailed it like he aljo got
clubbed a bunch and then the time he turned away that he he was no longer
rolling in and rolling up he rolled away he functionally turned his back if he was standing against the fence it was a
back turn like yeah that’s it it was an ideal stoppage yeah yeah you would you just yeah the way he
turtled that direction it’s just that that that’s that’s pretty much the fetal
position you just you’re done and um if he wanted yeah there’s many other ways
to get up and defend yourself that’s not one of them and I thought Goddard Goddard is that the ref tonight yeah
yeah I thought and I thought he did he gave the champ the proper amount of time to recover so uh I agree I totally agree
I that when that right hand landed I thought he killed him like I thought the way out it did look like he face
planted and but he didn’t but it looked like it yeah he recovered and was able to try to defend and Sean landed like a
bunch of big hammer fists and I think Goddard did a nice job because he could have stopped it after like the third or fourth Hammer fist because he was
Landing him and then aljo was able to sort of get his wits to him and start to fend and I think the way Mark looked at
it was I mean we give this dude like one more big shot before I step in there and then
after he sort of turned aljo over like kind of threw his legs to the side and
he landed that like everything he had right hand it that just busted open aljo’s eye that was it like that was the
shot that was a gnarly punch on the bottom and I got her stepped in and stopped it and I had no
issue with the stoppage especially hearing Al Joe sort of talk about it at the end like he was he was he felt like
maybe the stoppage a little early but at the same token he was honest he was like I don’t even know where I was like I forgot I was in Massachusetts I forgot
all this guys your freaking hair green because you’re in Massachusetts you know right and that’s why I don’t have a real
issue with this option like no if marab du Walsh really wants to come out publicly and be like oh that’s a bad stoppage like fine you’re the teammate
go ahead Rob’s a terrific friend yeah I I didn’t think the stoppage was
bad I think after that huge right-hand O’Malley landed I was like okay I think we’ve seen enough Fair
all right yeah dude he that was like 20 unanswered bombs yeah
at some point at some point you got to do more than not get put unconscious to
consider that intelligent defense yeah right uh
but if aljo had survived that man interesting KO of the Year enough for
fighter of the year it’s not the KO of the Year neither it’s neither yeah fighter of the year you’re you’re
never going to invite you the year with one fight the only person who could maybe pull it off is Jon Jones maybe
could have done it just by beating Cyril gone but he’s gonna fight steep a and probably one fight of the year as a
result um which you know fine um it’s definitely not care of the year I
it it’s going to take a [ __ ] miracle to beat Izzy for KO of the Year given all of the surroundings of that this is
great this is a slightly damaged by not being like if that was a clean face plant KO
if aljo didn’t Turf it on that shot then we could have a real conversation
because it’s the way it went it might make some people’s top fives but we’ve had a lot of incredible violence already
this year and still almost half of the year to go Cheeto just posted to to Twitter with a
giant joint in his mouth uh fighting for a world title very soon so my guess is they’re already talking about this one
so uh oh I mean it’s definitely happening here I’ll say if O’Malley comes and
beats Cheeto um he’ll be on fight of the Year ballots for sure
yep I think we know they answered this one but we might as well just kind of talk about it a bit is Sean O’Malley a
crossover star like with the boxing I guess
I thought Oh I thought which is everything I was just kind of talking about just
for people that are like people who don’t even follow the sport know who Connor is people don’t follow the sport know who Ronda is do people who don’t
follow fighting do they know who Sean O’Malley is I don’t think people who don’t follow
Sports at all know who Sean O’Malley is but people who just follow sports like I
I got texts from people today being like is a Molly going to get gassed up tonight um but they know who he is and I’ll tell
you what Tomorrow People are he yes tomorrow he is going to be known by a broader
spectrum of fans than just MMA fans or even just sports fans he he’s not Conor
but like he’s gonna be the next best thing to Conor that we’ve had since like he’s
going to be the best the best star that MMA has had since Conor I think that I think the part that maybe
fans like is because he’s going to he’s the next biggest thing since Connor yet
he’s not Conor like we get like that’s I think that’s the good part yeah we’ve had this is new this is new so uh I
think that’s it just cool yeah dude he’s next he’s next gen Connor he’s Connor for the kids
oh God yeah he’s a big gamer and all that stuff so that that’s all that’s gonna do is just help him all the things
it’s gonna do great uh he’s gonna fight Cheeto and he’s not
gonna fight for like a year yeah uh how can Dana say he doesn’t make fights on the night but then say they
reached out to Wonderboy and he’s turned down the Gary fight he just says Eddie thing that suits him at a time so
I had heard I had heard like some Rumblings that if Ian beat Neil that
they’re gonna try to to book that one as a main event at the end of the year so them reaching out to Wonderboy and
offering it him kind of on the spot is not surprising to me based on things that I had heard but it didn’t like this
is not saying like this is a done deal or anything like that but um it just seemed like this is the
direction the UFC was going to go with the reaction that Machado Gary this week but
um I mean this is what Dana does right like this is what he does
yeah uh I don’t care about Dana being like marginally hypocritical it’s whatever I did notice it today uh
someone’s got to get in his ear to just make fights on Fight Night like it’s fine it’s not one it’s not like we’re
holding you to any standards the media does not hold you to any standards in general but two it would just be way a
better view a news cycle in all things if you would like actually talk about what’s going to be next for these
Fighters that just fought instead of the questions being hey what did you what’s your take on this performance cool
what’s gonna be next not gonna answer that all right um what about the Patriots and what about
these other things like when are you coming back to China like no just talk about the the only way you have to
communicate about the fighters who just fought is your opinion of the performance and what is going to come next for them why can’t you just
somebody can write you a memo sheet of here’s sort of what we’re thinking we’re not locked into this but I’ll tell you
what uh I would love to watch a guy like Ian Machado Gary fight a Stephen Wonderboy Thompson or fight a thing you
know what we’re not I’m not saying we’re gonna do it but you’re right doing doing Wiley Zhang versus jean-jon on in China
it’s incredibly big business for us that’s the sort of thing that we’re really into why not have those conversations like it’s it’s so dumb and
such a waste of the time I I don’t get it if we can have yawn right there cage
side I mean I don’t it was it was odd but um this is I thought do you feel like do
you feel like because the one time he really did make fights after the fight was Colby the
whole Leon Colby thing and that was in March that was well I mean in March but
he also did it in December with the light heavyweight title it’s like that fight sucked we booked a new light
heavyweight title yeah because they needed a main event for that card that was really hurting but I guess my big
question is that was dope we came out like this is news and great and interesting yeah oh no certainly so I
guess my question in the Fallout of this is that if Sean O’Malley really wants to fight Cheeto Vera in December
and Leon if what Colby has to say about Jon Jones being like nah dude I ain’t
giving this dude the rub which actually wouldn’t surprise me based on some of the things these two have said about each other
is Leanna Colby even gonna happen this year like do you feel like that fight’s even gonna happen this year or is that going to be push to next year now I do
not personally I do not personally believe that fight’s gonna happen this year um because it’s I don’t know feel like we’d
have made some traction on it by now that fight has been out there for what four months five months as the thing
that was going to happen so I I don’t know um yeah
I I would I would guess that’s not gonna happen which means and also if you have to pick one of those two what do you
think the UFC is going to think is better business it’s going to be O’Malley Cheeto so they’re gonna pick that one over over
doing Leon Colby foreign yeah I mean which I mean this is this just screams we have to call Jon Jones
and be like if he really feels this way she’s like dude just you’re gonna have to deal with it sorry like these guys are fighting in the
co-main event that’s it you’re just gonna have to deal with it we’ll put you at different pressers if we have to but this is your Coal Mine event battle we
gotta do it yeah yeah I doubt John would really say no
it’ll be fine yeah uh UFC already uploaded the Finish to
YouTube I don’t think they’ve ever done this straight after a pay-per-view for a title fight are they actually promoting now uh just only for O’Malley so I will
say this the UFC is trying different things um and you can see it on the project oh you think that’s what this is
I mean yeah
I hadn’t even considered that as you like they’re just sort of trying it out
yeah that’s what I think they’re doing I think they’re trying it out uh they’re trying a lot of things out I like the picture picture stuff they’re doing
um I kind of like the react the fighter reactions like even just showing just the little nuances uh Chris Weidman is
fighting and they just do a little picture-in-picture without Jermaine Sterling just watching with faded breath
his teammate about to lose to Brad Tavares and having an injured leg like these things are really cool uh I like
some of the new slow motion replays they’re doing that the alternate angles of certain things that they’re doing like the broadcast just seems like more
fun they’re trying new things to see if they’re gonna work and I think having a cell phone image of
the finish and just throwing it up on the screen I don’t know if it’s like the cell phone image of Dana’s
you know from Dana social or if they show the actual finish by now the broadcast finish on you yeah
I mean they’ve pumped it on all sides on all their socials I mean they’ve been out with it it’s it’s really good Casey
never talk about this in post like I had not considered that this is them trying something um which would be cool if that’s the
case I just sort of thought that um the UFC are not fools and they know that this is the moment to capitalize on
the biggest thing that they can have and so they are actually doing the promotional bit maybe not in perpetuity
for formality but this is the one if you have can only pick one this is the one to do it you want to get this out you
want this to be everywhere you want the clip to be on SportsCenter Top 10 tomorrow running endlessly endlessly endlessly you want to put him on Jimmy
Kimmel and Fallon and do all that stuff and I think that that’s what we’re going to see but it would be dope if this is
just how they were going to move forward because it’s much more reasonable yeah and then we’re not going to do this
every single time but moments like this yes like if they could redo you know at the time putting the Leon Edwards head
kick up there I think with that lineup we should have done that as well yeah but um
I slightly disagree they’re trying to do something different I actually agree with this comment they’re actually
promoting that’s all this is actually promotion and I I don’t understand doing something
different by actually promoting and this is this is what you do right this is a this is this is the right move
this was the right move right and and I think the actual like promotion for this
card was really good Dana is not He’s Just Not That Guy anymore he’s
still like the face of the company and people care what they have to say but he’s not that guy anymore like even even at the press conference when
you know I asked him about just being in Boston the crowd was all fired up it wasn’t
I just want I don’t know like the way it was set up I’m like oh man Dana’s gonna actually like get really excited here
he’s like no we broke the gate record good home and I was like Oh I thought
you’d come up with something a little better than that but that’s right I think the UFC under yeah the U the UFC
has really good smart people working for them and just because Dana is not the one promoting it doesn’t mean that they
as a company cannot and they’re doing a unless there’s a power slap event the
same week or the same month as a card is happening they typically they did a really good job of putting this card
over this week I thought
maybe got to me a little bit just because of the ubiquity of it but the
the interstitials with with um Sean O’Malley and his like commercial
spots like during the prelims and stuff that’s all good and this is I feel like we say it all the time we haven’t been
really like negative on the UFC tonight which is great because I don’t always want to bag on him but like when people
are asked the question why are you mean to the UFC there are many moral reasons for that but one of the biggest one is
just at a fundamental level I am aware of what they are capable of doing because I have seen it this is it like
this 291 290 like that that stretch of pay-per-views is like hey here’s where
what you should demand as a fan every time they’re because they have the ability to do this they just simply
choose not to for most of it and when they do great things happen 290 and 291 were awesome events and now this is
I mean this just rules like this yeah this event isn’t the best but the end result is awesome
yep and that’s people are gonna remember before we go I have a question
for you gentlemen um coming into the fight where did you put did you put consider
um algeman Sterling the bantamweight goat like where did you put him and where do you put them now
I only somebody brought this up a few weeks ago and I had started diving into it but I didn’t really get all the way
to a full answer I think I’m still at Dominic Cruz um I don’t feel confident in that answer
um with aljo at number two and it was uh somebody and maybe it was uh maybe it
was AKA somebody this week and I for sorry I don’t remember who just sort of compared it to BJ being the goat
lightweight and it was sort of just a default one like um his career is very important and and
substantial but probably didn’t really have like the resume that demands gothood uh certainly not in the case of
other web you know weight classes and I feel like that with dom like he’s kind of the default because of various
factors but this is still a division waiting on somebody to stand up and say
yo I’m him yeah to me it’s
if we’re if we’re comparing the bantamweight division in its history to like the ending of a Mario Kart Grand
Prix algebra and Sterling is on the podium now where you put him is is up to you
it could be three but he is on the podium with Dominic Cruz if you want a 30 dealership on that
conversation fine um but he is one of the top two guys and it’s and even after tonight he’s still
one of the top two guys for sure yeah this doesn’t knock him off off the podium for me everyone takes losses his
what he’s previously accomplished is enough so but it’s you know by the term
greatest it makes sense but at the same time we’re talking calling the saying that hey you’re the
greatest bandwid alive and being like and also Anderson Silva’s the greatest middleweight alive those aren’t those
don’t feel like the same greatness yeah couples you know it’s like there’s there’s a bit of a gap there in the term
goat we’re comparing George St-Pierre and Dominic Cruz and I was just thought
that was super interesting about bantamweight too um like you said I’m the Hipster and I think I love Bantam
white so but I think it’s just because it’s it’s a Division I don’t know if we’re ever going to have a
dream you’ll get one eventually but yeah yeah I mean right now right now like
just even thinking about it more it’s um it’s algebra one for me and C still won
his right like if you want to put Cruise one that’s fine but I just feel like
Sterling’s UFC resume is better than cruises it just is like the amount of
names that he has beaten over all this time and I understand Cruz had injuries so he hasn’t had as many fights as
Sterling but Sterling has fought everybody and beaten just about
everybody in the process it’s a tough run he’s had man really
strong if you pick Sterling I’m not going to argue my my stance is I largely
judge goateness and that based not on your overall resume though I think some of that factors in but it’s your time at
the top because I think that’s the hardest and most meaningful part of it and everyone’s I would say that cruise
is time at the top is was better uh comparative to his relative peers at the
time but if you want to pick Sterling I got no beef with that yeah it was supposed to be yawn Pierre Yan was
supposed to be the guy who was going to be the goat of this weight class and MMA MMA made
yeah that one knee yeah I’m still I’m still of Dom it’s hard to go but that’s
not the hill I would die on but no yeah no but now this discussion becomes a little more interesting with Sterling
there and now the division like who knows like Shawn O’Malley is going to is going to properly choose the big money
fights and if he can run off four or five title defenses man there are gonna be people saying that he is the best if
he has the record it’s going to happen that’s going to be a conversation that’s going to be had William that’s absolutely the case yeah more sure
there’s no chance he’s running all four or five and I’m I feel like I’ve been higher on Sean O’Malley than most and
credit to him uh I believe um who who posted this
um because I want to I want to remember who somebody put up the stat and I’ll find in a second to give them their props uh
Sean O’Malley is the youngest UFC champion at this point he’s the only UFC champion under 30.
so that’s crazy uh it’s absolutely incredible for him to be there
um and that so you know he has the opportunity to have that level of success but
Bantam way to it’s bantamweight and lightweight are divisions that people just aren’t going to put together five
wins at the top it’s just never gonna happen yeah I mean this could be the beginning of the next gen making moves because
Aaron blanchfield’s gonna probably get a title shot sooner rather than later she could be another one I would pick
her to beat either Alexa grass or Valentina right now and there’s there’s others as well so
it’s an interesting time all right Casey you could hit the music I think we have uh we have done our part here it is 4 14
a.m eastern time so time to wrap this up uh but in about five hours and 45
minutes uh we’ll be back AK will join me we’ll do some matchmaking we’ll have some fun talk about the Fallout of this
event and much more MMA hour on Monday with some special guest hosts
there’ll be a lot more chatter about this but thank you all for watching all the programming this week checking out
all the coverage this week shout out to Jose Young’s boots on the ground dude works his ass off uh so don’t get it
twisted in that respect at all that’s great thank you very much he really does he’s still good he doesn’t ask about the
Patriots or hey my buddies really really good at fighting Dana are you thinking about
signing them just it’s just good professional questions
that was the best question Cheeto bear got a dub and that man was like I need
to know about Morales okay they had no idea who that was
[Music] you know that the Cheeto just got the
dub right I feel like you could ask about that Ecuadorian but okay fair enough
go to sleep everybody good night love y’all
